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Halloween with the New Addams Family
Halloween with the New Addams Family is a 74-minute TV special based around the Addams Family characters created by American cartoonist Charles Addams in 1938 and made famous through a TV comedy series which ran from 1964 to 1966. The special first aired in the United States on NBC on October 30, 1977. Most of the principle cast members from the 1960s TV series reprise their roles in Halloween with the New Addams Family; John Astin plays Gomez Addams, Carolyn Jones plays Morticia Addams, Jackie Coogan plays Uncle Fester, Ted Cassidy plays Lurch the butler and Felix Silla plays Cousin Itt. Lisa Loring and Ken Weatherwax, who had played Wednesday and Pugsley Addams as children in the 1960s series, return to play the same roles as young adults in the special. Blossom Rock was unable to take part in the program due to illness, Jane Rose replaced her in the role of Grandmama Addams. The special also features Henry Darrow as Gomez's brother Pancho Addams, Elvia Addams as Grandmama Frump, the child actors Jennifer Surprenant and Ken Marquis as Wednesday, Jr. and Pugsley, Jr. and Parley Baer, Patrick Campbell and Vito Scotti as the crooks "Bones" Lafferty, Louie the Lard and Mikey. The plot concerns an attempt by a gang of criminals to rob the Addamses' home during their annual Halloween party. The criminals know that the Addamses are extremely wealthy but are not fully aware of how unusual the family members are or how potentially dangerous their home is. Unlike the 1960s TV series, which was filmed in a studio, a real house, the Higgins-Verbeck-Hirsch Mansion in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles, built in 1902, was used for both exterior and interior shots in the special. The special was intended to serve as the pilot episode for a series which was never made. Plot In the eleven years since the ''Addams Family'' TV series ended, the children Wednesday and Pugsley have grown up and left home. Wednesday is studying the piccolo at a music academy and Pugsley has gone to Nairobi to learn to be a witch doctor. Gomez and Morticia Addams have had two more children, a daughter named Wednesday, Jr. and a son named Pugsley, Jr. The special begins shortly before Halloween. The family are planning an extravagant Halloween party but have to disappoint some would be guests by telling them that it will be for family only this year. The butler Lurch is looking forward to catching a pterodactyl on Halloween night. Morticia's mother Grandmama Frump is visiting and is working on a magic potion which she hopes will make her broomstick fly before the big night is over. Gomez's brother Pancho is also visiting. He tells the children the story of Cousin Shy, a Great Pumpkin-like character who carves pumpkins and delivers presents to good children on Halloween night. Gomez is anxious because he has to go away on business to Tombstone, Arizona for a day. Pancho once courted Morticia and Gomez does not want to leave his brother alone with her. He is also nervously expecting a promotion at his lodge. A gang of criminals under the leadership of "Bones" Lafferty have bugged the Addamses' home. They know that the Addamses are extremely wealthy but have no idea how eccentric they are, believing that most of the strange things which they say are some kind of code. They see Gomez leave, taking a large amount of luggage with him, and assume he will be gone for a long time. They plan to take advantage of his absence to rob the family's home. One criminal named Mikey, posing as someone who has come to evaluate the house's worth, is sent into their home to investigate. While Mikey is in the house, the Addamses' grown up children Wednesday and Pugsley (now referred to as Wednesday, Sr. and Pugsley, Sr.) come home to visit. Mikey is startled by Wednesday, Sr.'s ability to break glass by playing her piccolo and is alarmed by Pugsley, Sr. in his witch doctor garb. The final straw for Mikey comes when he encounters the Addamses' pet lion Kitty Kat. He flees from the house and tells "Bones" Lafferty that he is leaving the gang. Gomez returns home in time to take part in the family tradition of decorating the scarecrow in the attic before the Halloween party begins. He jealously suspects that his brother Pancho is trying to replace him when Pancho lifts up Wednesday, Jr. so that she can give the scarecrow its pumpkin head. "Bones" Lafferty in a pirate costume, accompanied by his male associate Louie the Lard in a Little Bo Peep costume and two muscle-bound goons named Hercules and Atlas, gain entry to the Addamses' family only Halloween party, posing as John Quincy Addams and family from Boston. Lafferty also sneaks in Gomez and Morticia look-alikes, intended to stand in for the real Gomez and Morticia while Lafferty is holding them captive. Lafferty gets Hercules and Atlas to tie up Gomez several times but each time he takes it as a game. He uses his piccolo to send a message in Morse code to Wednesday, Sr., telling her to come and release him. Lurch spends most of the evening dancing with Louie the Lard, believing him to be a woman because of his costume. He takes Louie up to the tower to catch a pterodactyl with him. On the way to the tower, Lurch shows Hercules and Atlas that he is much stronger than they are, lifting with one arm some weights that they had been struggling to lift with two. The two goons flee in terror. Lurch catches what he thinks is a pterodactyl, but it turns out to be Grandmama Frump who has managed to make her broomstick fly. Lafferty becomes increasingly annoyed that his attempts to hold Gomez captive and locate his safe do not work. Seeing that the man looks stressed, Uncle Fester offers to take him to the "play room" and puts him on a rack. Lafferty tries to escape from the room via a secret passage, where he encounters Kitty Kat the lion. When the police arrive, following up a noise complaint, "Bones" Lafferty and his criminal accomplices gladly turn themselves in. Gomez knows that Pancho is still in love with Morticia. As the party comes to an end, he also receives the disappointing news that he has not been promoted at his lodge but has been demoted instead. Feeling sad, he goes up to the attack, opens a safe containing a pumpkin and sees a jack-o-lantern face magically appear on it, a sure sign that Cousin Shy is there. Gomez is further cheered up when he hears Pancho talking about how much he loves his brother Gomez. Singing a song, the whole family head up to the attic and open their presents which Cousin Shy has placed beneath the scarecrow. See also *''The Addams Family'': Halloween with the Addams Family *''The Addams Family'': Halloween - Addams Style *''The Addams Family'': Puttergeist *''The New Addams Family'': Halloween with the Addams Family External links *''Halloween with the New Addams Family'' on the Internet Movie Database. Category:TV specials Category:The Addams Family